Creating a model portfolio isn’t exactly like twisting open a water faucet, you know. The old noggin comes in plenty handy. After all, effective investing’s means committing to the choices among a range of investment tools that will yield results, according to forbes.com.

And they’re made of strong stuff, with the gravitas to turn a financial future rife with uncertainty into a secure one. A great starting point: putting together a model portfolio, the site continued.

Substantial discussion’s weaved into creating the portfolio, which consists of a gaggle of diverse assets. It also dispenses the opportunity to leverage diversification as a hedge against your risks.

You’re not only homing in on your financial objectives down the road but must be positioned to address any important immediate needs. Not only that, when it comes to your expenses, it’s essential to have enough liquidity to abet your ability to manage it.  

Well managed stock or “equity” funds pave the way to the best chance for a long term stock market experience on a sustained basis for most people, according to yourarticlelibrary.com. A generally embraced idea: the younger you are the more sprinkled with to equity stocks your portfolio should be.

ESGs? So called Active driven agendas? Two peas in a pod? Um, yep; that is, if you ask Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, according to foxnews.com.

Rokita contended that state law places a roadblock in the ability of ESG to impact investments by state government employee pension funds. He furthermore states that BlackRock, one of the world’s largest investment funds, potentially has “run afoul: of state and federal antitrust laws. How? By leveraging ESG in its investments decisions. The company also promotes its "firm-wide commitment to integrate ESG."

He argued that the Indiana Public Retirement System is required to invest the pensions of citizens "with care, skill, prudence and diligence," in an advisory opinion late last month. He also went on to allege that since ESG investments stem from political instead of financial interests, it’s a legal no no for the INPRS to make investments with ESG guidelines in mind.

Looking ahead to future ESSH campaigns, boards would be savvy to expect a settlement – or for activists to prevail – and not withdraw or a failed activist initiative, based on research from diligent.com.

While there was a drop off in the volume of activism activity between 2020 and last year, 13% of the campaigns last year struck gold. In 2020, it stood at 11%. It was indicative of a shift in corporate commitments to ESG, the site continued.

et’s see: an IRS audit. Or this: your taxes are hightailing it north.

Then there’s the old reliable: the volatility of the financial markets.

Ah, yes. Bum, bum and, um, bummer of all.

That said, on the bright side, to leverage the dividends of tax loss harvesting, there’s direct indexing, according to advisorperspective.com.

And what’s with the gold dust direct indexing boasts in light of a topsy turvy market? Well, the investor owns the individual securities rather than a commingled fund, so they take ownership of any losses absorbed on receding stocks, the site continued. So, when it comes to offsetting gains, the investor can tap those setbacks. And, presto, that can go quite a way in paring back the tax bill of an investor.

But it’s not all tinsel town and balloons. On one hand, says experts, fees and accounts minimums might be heading south, on the other, it could be that direct indexing’s will cut a deeper swatch in your wallet and; yes, isn’t there always more: might be more difficult to deal with than passive investing, according to cnbc.com.

Category: Eq: Dividends, 

Keywords: direct indexing, financial... etc.

According to the SEC’s draft strategic plan for the next four years, the agency plans on shifting its enforcement focus regarding Reg BI to “making a recommendation.” The SEC’s Strategic Plan for 2022-2026 states that the agency intends to bring cases that matter to “all parts of the SEC’s mission.” This includes failure to act in a retail customer’s best interests when making a recommendation, among other items. Kurt Gottschall, a partner in Haynes Boone, and a former director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office told ThinkAdvisor that the language “indicates the SEC is ready to move beyond basic compliance and disclosure obligations to scrutinize the placement of retail investors’ funds in advisory versus brokerage accounts, whether complex or risky products were offered to those investors, and registered representatives’ consideration of costs.”

Finsum:Based on the language in the SEC’s four-year strategic plan, advisors and Broker-dealers will need to pay more attention to compensation arrangements and product placements.

According to a recent report by Fitch Ratings, U.S. insurers are expected to continue to increase their fixed-income ETF holdings. In December, New York introduced new guidelines that allowed a fixed income ETF to receive bond-like capital treatment if the ETF is rated by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization. However, if rated, an ETF can receive this treatment only if it is invested in fixed income securities and cash, is passively managed, and has at least $1 billion in assets under management, among other criteria. So far, Fitch has rated 10 fixed-income ETFs from VanEck, Vanguard, and Invesco. Insurers have previously sought to increase their ETF holdings due to a mix of diversification, increased liquidity, and the ability to adjust overall portfolio allocations. According to SNL data, ETF holdings at insurers jumped from $3 billion in 2016 to $9.8 billion at the end of 2021.

Finsum:Since New York introduced new guidelines that allowed a fixed income ETF to receive bond-like capital treatment, insurers have been increasing their fixed income ETF holdings.